feel pity vs feel sorry

[micaelo]

I just came across this exercise:
"Which of the following is correct: I feel pity for her/I feel sorry for her. ANSWER: feel sorry." (That's all the context there is)
Aren't both of them correct? I doublechecked in the dictionary and found the following sentence: "I felt pity for the poor creature", so that shows both of them are correct. Am I right here or am I missing something?

[ana2005]

I've always seen "pity on something or someone", but maybe both are correct.

[BobK]

I agree with you. I think 'I feel sorry for you' is probably nore natural in most contexts, but 'I feel pity for N' [where N is a person] is perfectly acceptable - and in some contexts (when someone had asked about an emotion) it would be better than 'sorry':

'Don't you feel anything for me?'
'I feel pity for you.' [You wanted a noun, so here it is!]

b

[igmclean]

Pity and Sorrow are two words with nearly identical meaning.
You should use pity if you feel pity and sorry if you feel sorrow.
You can use either one, people will understand what you mean.

[ramialrefai]

I think both are correct, but the deepest answer should be feel pity since its more generalized, both can follow by the preposition ((for)) .

[phutchison]

I am not a teacher.

Personally I think that feeling pity (for someone else) means:
I can put myself in your place and feel what you're feeling but at the same time it carries an element of "you could perhaps have prevented the situation that you find yourself in."

I feel sorry (for you) has more of:
I feel for your situation which was most likely caused by circumstances totally beyond your sphere of control.